What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, August 30, 2015

Great Sacred Music airs every Sunday morning from 8 until 11 a.m. eastern on The Classical Station.

Much of the music on this week’s playlist can also be found on Spotify at this link: Great Sacred Music – August 30, 2015

Also on Sunday evenings you can hear more choral music both sacred and secular on Wavelengths and Peaceful Reflections

beginning at 9 p.m. eastern.

 

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08:01:48
Claudio Monteverdi: Christe, adoramus te
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers

 

Samuel Wesley: In exitu Israel
Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, John Scott
Andrew Lucas, organ

 

Georg Bohm: Chorale prelude: Vater unser im Himmelreich
Ulrich Knorr, organ
1968 Rieger organ in St. Jakob Kirche, Rothenburg

 

Harry Christophers founded The Sixteen in 1975. To date they have recorded

over 90 CDs. Engish composer Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) scored his setting

of In Exitu Israel for double choir a capella. German organist Ulrich Knorr is organist

and director of music at St. Jakob Kirche, Rothenburg.

 

08:16:53
Lowell Mason: Nearer My God to Thee
Members of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Margaret Hillis

 

Anton Arensky: Otche Nash (The Lord’s Prayer)
Lane Justus Chorale, Lane Justus

 

American choral conductor Margaret Hillis (1921-1998) founded the Chicago Symphony

Chorus. Russian composer Anton Arensky composed his setting of the Our Father prayer in 1897.

 

08:21:46
Christopher Tye: Christ rising
Choir of Westminster Abbey, James O’Donnell

 

Ronald Arnatt: Festival Psalm
Choir of Riverside Church, New York, Dr. John Walker
J. David Williams, organ

 

Johannes Brahms: Schmucke dich, o liebe Seele, Op. 122 No. 5
Todd Wilson, organ
Aeolian-Skinner organ, Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta

 

Before taking up the post of Master of the Quire at Westminster Abbey,

James O’Donnell was Director of Music at London’s Westminster Cathedral.

English-American composer Dr. Ronald Arnatt (1930-) has been active for many

years in the St. Louis area. Brahms wrote the eleven chorale preludes of Opus 122

the year before he died.

 

08:34:10
Frank La Rocca: Credo
Artists Vocal Ensemble
Jonathan Dimmock

 

Anonymous: Magnificat in the 6th Tone
Rejean Poirier, organ

 

American composer Frank La Rocca (1951-) wrote his setting of the

Credo in 2002 for SATB choir. The anonymous Magnificat played by

French-Canadian organist Rejean Poirier  was discovered in Le Livre

d’orgue de Montreal which is an 18th manuscript brought over from France

to Montreal in 1724 by Jean Girard, a Sulpician monk.

 

08:56:40
J.S. Bach: Cantata 33, “Alein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”
Holland Boys’ Choir; Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink
Ruth Holton, soprano; Sytse Buwalde, alto; 
Knut Schoch, tenor; Bas Ramselaar, bass

 

Cantata 33 (Alone towards you, Lord Jesus Christ) was first performed in

Leipzig on September 3, 1724, some 291 years ago. Of particular interest

is the opening chorus which is about as brilliant a piece of writing as Bach

ever penned.

 

09:19:10
Robert Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50
Monteverdi Choir; Revolutionary & Romantic Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Barbara Bonney, soprano; Alexandra Coku, soprano;
Bernarda Fink, contralto; Christoph Pregardien, tenor;
Neill Archer, tenor; Gerald Finley, bass; Cornelius Hauptmann, bass

 

German composer Robert Schumann completed his oratorio Paradise and the Peri

in 1843. It is based loosely on the oriental tale Lalla-Rookh. It recounts the story

of how the mythological peri regains entrance to paradise after having been expelled.

No less a composer than Richard Wagner thought very highly of Schumann’s composition

which is infrequently performed these days. The work is scored for choir and orchestra with

two soprano soloists, contralto, two tenor and two bass soloists.